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Posts Tagged ‘McKayla Bailey throws heat’

Well, this means something…

Posted in Milestones, tagged , , , , , on March 26, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I'm contractually obligated to feature a photo of McKayla Bailey at least once a week. True story. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

   Creating 3,000 articles isn’t as hard as it sounds when 17.8% of them have just been McKayla Bailey photo essays… (Shelli Trumbull photo)

These words you’re reading (or ignoring) are different than those that have come before.

Kinda.

What makes this semi-special is it is the 3,000th article in the 31-month history of Coupeville Sports.

So, for two and a half months, writing 99.93% of what you read (or ignore) on this blog, I have delivered 96.77 articles per month, or 3.22 articles per day, on average.

That’s more than Canada gives you.

And, I’ve done it all while bashing my typing fingers to pieces in the dish pits, not the best “real” job to go with trying to keep the only semi-talented pieces of my body still intact.

But, it is what it is.

As we go forward (4,000 articles or bust!), maybe take a moment and consider donating a buck or two (there’s a handy donate button on the upper right hand side of the blog), if you like what you get from my rantings.

If enough people do so, I might actually be able to escape the dish pits and devote all my time to doing this here writing thing. While nursing my fingers back to health…

If you don’t feel like doing so, it is what it is. Keep reading at least.

Onward and upward. It’s a new day.

Oh, sorry, just talking to my fingers.

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Million Dollar Arm put on ice (for a bit)!!

Posted in A freakin' American hero, Softball, tagged , , , on July 8, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Even while injured, the camera-friendly Bailey remains available for photo ops. (John Fisken photo)

Even while injured, the camera-friendly McKayla Bailey remains available for photo ops. (John Fisken photo)

The most valuable softball-hurlin’ arm in Coupeville has been pulled from the pitcher’s circle. For now, at least.

McKayla Bailey, who carried the Wolves all the way to the state tournament while throwing 99.7% of her team’s pitches as a junior, has had to step back a bit from her usual summer select ball schedule.

Bailey has been diagnosed with two slight tears in her pitching shoulder. One is in her rotator cuff, the other is a “SLAP tear” in her super labrum.

“They were caused by an impingement in the joint,” Bailey said. “We are trying physical therapy and hoping that will help it to heal itself.”

If PT doesn’t improve things, she’ll go in for surgery in late August, but even that would not be as bad as first thought.

“I would be back and fully functioning by mid-September, because the surgery is minor,” Bailey said. “At first we thought it would be a six plus month recovery time, but the MRI showed that it wasn’t that bad.”

Always a three-season athlete, she plans on playing a fall sport as a senior, regardless of where her shoulder may be.

“I’m hoping to play volleyball this fall, surgery or no surgery,” Bailey said. “I’m going to talk to the coach and see how she feels about the possibility. If I can’t play, I will be the manager, if possible.

“Or, if she doesn’t want me to play, then I’ll look at soccer again,” she added. “You don’t have to worry about using your arms in that sport!”

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Bats hot early, cold late!!

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , on May 7, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Jae LeVine, here scoring in an earlier game, played sparkling defense Wednesday. (John Fisken photo)

Jae LeVine, here scoring in an earlier game, played sparkling defense Wednesday. (John Fisken photos)

Madeline Roberts makes plays like this all game, every game.

Madeline Roberts makes plays like this all game, every game.

Red hot, then ice cold.

That was the pattern the Coupeville High School softball squad followed Wednesday afternoon at Cedarcrest, jumping out to a quick lead, but unable to hold on to it in a narrow 4-2 loss.

Now 4-13 overall, 3-13 in Cascade Conference play, the Wolves dropped into a tie with Island rival South Whidbey in the battle for the 1A/2A league’s #1 playoff seed for 1A schools.

Coupeville holds the tiebreaker, having taken two of three from the Falcons, and both squads have two regular season games left to play.

The Wolves travel to Lakewood Friday to play a team they’ve beaten this year, then close out at Granite Falls against the top team in the league.

It looked like CHS might be on its way to its fifth win of the season when they came out guns blazin’ in the top of the first Wednesday.

Three straight hits — singles to left from Breeanna Messner and Hailey Hammer and a thunderous two-run double to left center off the bat of McKayla Bailey — got things jumping.

Madeline Strasburg followed with a hard-hit grounder that the Cedarcrest shortstop snagged but threw wildly on, putting runners at the corners.

Aiming for a big inning, Coupeville coach David King gave Strasburg the steal sign, only to see her gunned down on “a perfect throw.”

After that, much of the offense dried up, with just singles from Madeline Roberts and Hammer after that.

Strasburg came close to firing things up again when she launched a shot to left in the third, only to watch in frustration as the Cedarcrest outfielder laid out going down the line and made a spectacular catch several feet off the ground.

Coupeville went three up and three down the final three innings, killing any chance of a comeback.

The host Red Wolves got their runs with a surge of their own in the first, using four consecutive hits, including a pair of doubles, to plate three.

Cedarcrest tacked on an insurance run in the third, and then it was a scoreless pitcher’s duel the rest of the afternoon.

Bailey struck out five and didn’t walk a hitter, while the Wolves played spotless, often inspired defense behind her.

Coupeville catcher Messner nailed a runner trying to steal second, while all three outfielders (Haley Sherman, Strasburg and Monica Vidoni) pulled off gorgeous snags on tricky balls hit their way.

The infielders were just as active, with Jae LeVine making a “great backhanded grab” on a hot ball up the middle and Emily Licence teaming up with LeVine for a bang-bang force-out play at second after snagging a grounder.

While the record may not reflect it, the Wolves have rarely been blown out this season, fighting down to the final inning in most of their losses.

A little more consistency at the plate would go a long way to balancing things out.

“Offensively we are still trying to find a rhythm and consistency,” King said. “We have a good inning, then we cool off quickly and can’t get things going again.

“We are playing better on defense and McKayla with her pitching has kept us in games,” he added. “We are right there in our games; once we start having good at bats throughout a seven-inning game, these close games we aren’t winning will start putting us in the win column.”

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It’s the big bounce-back!!

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , on April 19, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Mess

Breeanna Messner collected three hits and three RBI, while also gunning down an attempted steal, to help spark Friday’s huge win. (John Fisken photos)

McKayla Bailey

McKayla Bailey moves the Earth itself when she gets nasty on the mound.

This thing turned around on a dime.

Two days after its worst game of the season, the Coupeville High School softball squad found its mojo, big-time, and pulled off a thrilling 8-6 win over visiting Lakewood.

Big hits, defensive gems, a renewed spark and then a lights-out finale from McKayla Bailey, who stalked the mound in the seventh, cementing her rep as the baddest woman alive by reaching down and punching out hope itself.

With a lead to hold, she got flat-out nasty, whiffing one of the Cascade Conference’s best hitters — homer-hittin’ Haley Malakowski — on a fastball that exploded into catcher Breeanna Messner’s glove with a sound that carried across the prairie.

After a little help from left fielder Haley Sherman, who made a superb running catch on a ball over her head for the second out, Bailey went back into Terminator mode and slammed the door shut.

It was a fastball again, and the final Lakewood slugger hit nothing but air as the ball whistled by for strike three.

It was a brilliant bounce-back for the Wolves, now 4-6 overall, 3-6 in Cascade Conference play. With their first win this season over a 2A school, they remain the #1 team among the league’s 1A squads.

Things got off to a bumpy start, with Lakewood scoring all its runs in the first two innings. Then Bailey went to work, facing the minimum batters in three of the final five innings, and her squad responded with an offensive display of its own.

“McKayla has been solid all year long for us as our pitcher. Today she seemed to find a spot that fit her well and did what she does best,” CHS coach David King said. “Kept the Lakewood hitters off balance from the third inning on and let her defense help her by throwing the right pitches in the right locations throughout the game.”

At the plate, everything was clicking for Coupeville.

The team’s first two hitters, Madeline Roberts and Messner, got things started with three hits apiece and combined for five RBI. Sherman and Emily Coulter backed them up, with two hits apiece.

Sherman thumped her first triple of the season, while Coulter and Messner launched doubles.

The Wolves used their speed to throw off Lakewood, with Roberts scoring the team’s first run when she beat an attempted rundown. Nimbly dodging the Cougar fielders, the speedy spark plug slid across the plate before they knew what had hit them.

Coupeville added RBIs from Roberts and Messner, before erupting for three in the bottom of the fifth to tie and two more in the sixth to claim the lead.

With Roberts at second in the fifth, King (“either dumb luck or smart coaching, probably dumb luck”), let Messner suddenly swing away after a failed bunt attempt, and the senior promptly parked an RBI double just inside the left field line.

After Hailey Hammer plated Messner on a fielder’s choice, Sherman decided to use almost the entire prairie, crushing an RBI triple to right center to knot the game at six.

Coupeville staked Bailey to her first lead of the game in the sixth, using a double from Coulter, a single from Roberts, an RBI single from Messner and a sac fly off the bat of Hammer.

After a tough loss to Cedarcrest in the rain Wednesday, a game in which little went well, King was thrilled to see his team bounce back. The extra work put in at the practice between games paid immediate dividends.

“This game we put everything together. Pitching, defense, hitting and base running,” he said. “The team came out focused and remained focused the whole game.

“Many players stepped up tonight with their hitting. Defensively we played solid, made all of the routine plays and added a few “wow” plays,” King added. “Total team effort and a game to build on.”

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Bailey, big bats blitz Bellingham!!

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , on April 10, 2014| Leave a Comment »

McKayla Bailey (John Fisken photos)

 McKayla Bailey — she’ll destroy your very soul with her fiery pitches, and smile all day long afterwards. (John Fisken photos)

Madeline Roberts scored the first run of the game Thursday -- the only run CHS would need. (John Fisken photo)

Madeline Roberts scored the first run of the game, the only run CHS would need.

Bellingham ain’t got nothin’ on Coupeville.

Continuing a run of dominance that started with two wins — including a playoff thriller — during basketball season, the Wolf girls own Meridian this school year.

Thursday, the game was softball and CHS stormed into town and delivered a hard slap-down, routing the host Trojans 8-0 in a non-conference game.

The victory lifted Coupeville to 3-5 and was a nice bounce back after a rough, waterlogged doubleheader sweep at Archbishop Thomas Murphy earlier in the week.

“Offensively we worked yesterday on staying back on the ball and looking to hit the pitch to the right and up the middle,” CHS coach David King said. “The players executed what they practiced. All of our hits were up the middle and to right.

“It’s great to see the execution on things we are working at during practice.”

When the bats weren’t booming, Wolf hurler McKayla Bailey was busy bein’ nasty, twirling a two-hitter and striking out eight. Both hits were harmless singles.

“She had them off balance by hitting her spots and her change up was working well today,” King said.

Coupeville gave Bailey the only run she would need without actually getting a hit.

Madeline Roberts led off the game with a walk, zipped all the way to third on a sac bunt from Breeanna Messner, then trotted home on a passed ball.

The Wolves continued to play small ball, adding a run in the second before blowing the game open.

Madeline Strasburg singled and came in to score when a ball put into play by Monica Vidoni was bobbled for an error.

The wheels really came off for Meridian in the third and fourth innings, as Coupeville popped for three runs apiece in each round of at-bats.

Hailey Hammer crushed a two-run single in the third (Roberts and Messner scored), followed by Strasburg lofting a long sac fly to bring Bailey in from third.

Capping their offensive output, the Wolves juiced the bags in the fourth on two walks and Roberts beating a fielders choice throw to first.

Messner, who was torrid at the plate all afternoon, cracked an RBI single, Bailey dropped a sac fly in for another run, then Strasburg closed the day with an RBI single of her own.

While the big boppers were on fire, two of the team’s freshmen stepped up at the plate as well.

Tiffany Briscoe absolutely crushed a laser line drive up the middle for her first high school hit, while Erin Josue also joined the hit parade for the first time. Josue smacked a shot down the first base line, with the ball ricocheting off the fielder’s glove.

Sophomore Emily Coulter slid over into a different position for the game and “made some nice defensive plays at third.”

Coupeville wraps up a six-game road trip (they’re 2-2 so far) with a doubleheader Monday, April 14 in Sultan, then finally gets to come home for a stretch.

After the face-off with the Turks, the Wolves play their next six games on Whidbey — five home games and a short trip to Langley to face arch-rival South Whidbey.

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